Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system will grab about 20% of the smartphone market

According to research reports from Gartner and IDC, Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system will grab about 20% of the smartphone market by 2015, enough to propel the OS past Apple’s iOS platform to take the No. 2 spot globally. Research firm Gartner believes Android will have a 49% market share in 2015, followed by Windows Phone at 19.5%, and Apple’s iOS growth will slow so much that it will only maintain a 17% share. IDC believes Windows Phone will have a 20.3 percent share in 2015. During the IFA trade show in Berlin on Friday, Windows Phone marketing head Achim Berg told Bloomberg those Windows Phone growth estimates are conservative. “This is a completely new platform, it takes time,” Berg said. “It took time with Android, it took time with Apple. We have to show that we’re very capable and that we have the fastest and easiest phone.”Gartner suggests Windows Phone’s growth is expected to surge thanks to help from big-name manufacturers such as HTC. Read on for more, including a statement from HTC’s president of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “We’re seeing an extremely positive response [to the operating system],” HTC’s Europe, Middle East and Africa president Florian Seiche told Bloomberg. “We’re now thinking that this year is a great time to get that momentum accelerated, to reach out to a broader group of customers.” HTC revealed its latest Windows Phone Mango handsets, the Radar and Titan, on September 1st. The analyses from IDC and Gartner aren’t the only such reports that project explosive growth for Microsoft’s emerging mobile platform. Pyramid Research is even more bullish on the OS, having said in May that Windows Phone will surpass Android’s market share as soon as 2013.